DESCRIPTION

Iterate over all refs that match <pattern> and show them
according to the given <format>, after sorting them according
to the given set of <key>. If <count> is given, stop after
showing that many refs. The interpolated values in <format>
can optionally be quoted as string literals in the specified
host language allowing their direct evaluation in that language.

OPTIONS

<pattern>…​

If one or more patterns are given, only refs are shown that
match against at least one pattern, either using fnmatch(3) or
literally, in the latter case matching completely or from the
beginning up to a slash.

--count=<count>

By default the command shows all refs that match
<pattern>. This option makes it stop after showing
that many refs.

--sort=<key>

A field name to sort on. Prefix - to sort in
descending order of the value. When unspecified,
refname is used. You may use the --sort=<key> option
multiple times, in which case the last key becomes the primary
key.

--format=<format>

A string that interpolates %(fieldname) from a ref being shown
and the object it points at. If fieldname
is prefixed with an asterisk (*) and the ref points
at a tag object, use the value for the field in the object
which the tag object refers to (instead of the field in the tag object).
When unspecified, <format> defaults to
%(objectname) SPC %(objecttype) TAB %(refname).
It also interpolates %% to %, and %xx where xx
are hex digits interpolates to character with hex code
xx; for example %00 interpolates to \0 (NUL),
%09 to \t (TAB) and %0a to \n (LF).

--color[=<when>]:
Respect any colors specified in the --format option. The
<when> field must be one of always, never, or auto (if
<when> is absent, behave as if always was given).

--shell

--perl

--python

--tcl

If given, strings that substitute %(fieldname)
placeholders are quoted as string literals suitable for
the specified host language. This is meant to produce
a scriptlet that can directly be `eval`ed.

--points-at=<object>

Only list refs which points at the given object.

--merged[=<object>]

Only list refs whose tips are reachable from the
specified commit (HEAD if not specified),
incompatible with --no-merged.

--no-merged[=<object>]

Only list refs whose tips are not reachable from the
specified commit (HEAD if not specified),
incompatible with --merged.

--contains[=<object>]

Only list refs which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not
specified).

--no-contains[=<object>]

Only list refs which don’t contain the specified commit (HEAD
if not specified).

--ignore-case

Sorting and filtering refs are case insensitive.

FIELD NAMES

Various values from structured fields in referenced objects can
be used to interpolate into the resulting output, or as sort
keys.

For all objects, the following names can be used:

refname

The name of the ref (the part after $GIT_DIR/).
For a non-ambiguous short name of the ref append :short.
The option core.warnAmbiguousRefs is used to select the strict
abbreviation mode. If lstrip=<N> (rstrip=<N>) is appended, strips <N>
slash-separated path components from the front (back) of the refname
(e.g. %(refname:lstrip=2) turns refs/tags/foo into foo and
%(refname:rstrip=2) turns refs/tags/foo into refs).
If <N> is a negative number, strip as many path components as
necessary from the specified end to leave -<N> path components
(e.g. %(refname:lstrip=-2) turns
refs/tags/foo into tags/foo and %(refname:rstrip=-1)
turns refs/tags/foo into refs). When the ref does not have
enough components, the result becomes an empty string if
stripping with positive <N>, or it becomes the full refname if
stripping with negative <N>. Neither is an error.

strip can be used as a synomym to lstrip.

objecttype

The type of the object (blob, tree, commit, tag).

objectsize

The size of the object (the same as git cat-file -s reports).

objectname

The object name (aka SHA-1).
For a non-ambiguous abbreviation of the object name append :short.
For an abbreviation of the object name with desired length append
:short=<length>, where the minimum length is MINIMUM_ABBREV. The
length may be exceeded to ensure unique object names.

upstream

The name of a local ref which can be considered “upstream”
from the displayed ref. Respects :short, :lstrip and
:rstrip in the same way as refname above. Additionally
respects :track to show "[ahead N, behind M]" and
:trackshort to show the terse version: ">" (ahead), "<"
(behind), "<>" (ahead and behind), or "=" (in sync). :track
also prints "[gone]" whenever unknown upstream ref is
encountered. Append :track,nobracket to show tracking
information without brackets (i.e "ahead N, behind M").

For any remote-tracking branch %(upstream), %(upstream:remotename)
and %(upstream:remoteref) refer to the name of the remote and the
name of the tracked remote ref, respectively. In other words, the
remote-tracking branch can be updated explicitly and individually by
using the refspec %(upstream:remoteref):%(upstream) to fetch from
%(upstream:remotename).

Has no effect if the ref does not have tracking information associated
with it. All the options apart from nobracket are mutually exclusive,
but if used together the last option is selected.

push

The name of a local ref which represents the @{push}
location for the displayed ref. Respects :short, :lstrip,
:rstrip, :track, :trackshort, :remotename, and :remoteref
options as upstream does. Produces an empty string if no @{push}
ref is configured.

HEAD

* if HEAD matches current ref (the checked out branch), ' '
otherwise.

color

Change output color. Followed by :<colorname>, where color
names are described under Values in the "CONFIGURATION FILE"
section of git-config[1]. For example,
%(color:bold red).

align

Left-, middle-, or right-align the content between
%(align:…​) and %(end). The "align:" is followed by
width=<width> and position=<position> in any order
separated by a comma, where the <position> is either left,
right or middle, default being left and <width> is the total
length of the content with alignment. For brevity, the
"width=" and/or "position=" prefixes may be omitted, and bare
<width> and <position> used instead. For instance,
%(align:<width>,<position>). If the contents length is more
than the width then no alignment is performed. If used with
--quote everything in between %(align:…​) and %(end) is
quoted, but if nested then only the topmost level performs
quoting.

if

Used as %(if)…​%(then)…​%(end) or
%(if)…​%(then)…​%(else)…​%(end). If there is an atom with
value or string literal after the %(if) then everything after
the %(then) is printed, else if the %(else) atom is used, then
everything after %(else) is printed. We ignore space when
evaluating the string before %(then), this is useful when we
use the %(HEAD) atom which prints either "*" or " " and we
want to apply the if condition only on the HEAD ref.
Append ":equals=<string>" or ":notequals=<string>" to compare
the value between the %(if:…​) and %(then) atoms with the
given string.

symref

The ref which the given symbolic ref refers to. If not a
symbolic ref, nothing is printed. Respects the :short,
:lstrip and :rstrip options in the same way as refname
above.

In addition to the above, for commit and tag objects, the header
field names (tree, parent, object, type, and tag) can
be used to specify the value in the header field.

For commit and tag objects, the special creatordate and creator
fields will correspond to the appropriate date or name-email-date tuple
from the committer or tagger fields depending on the object type.
These are intended for working on a mix of annotated and lightweight tags.

Fields that have name-email-date tuple as its value (author,
committer, and tagger) can be suffixed with name, email,
and date to extract the named component.

The complete message in a commit and tag object is contents.
Its first line is contents:subject, where subject is the concatenation
of all lines of the commit message up to the first blank line. The next
line is contents:body, where body is all of the lines after the first
blank line. The optional GPG signature is contents:signature. The
first N lines of the message is obtained using contents:lines=N.
Additionally, the trailers as interpreted by git-interpret-trailers[1]
are obtained as trailers (or by using the historical alias
contents:trailers). Non-trailer lines from the trailer block can be omitted
with trailers:only. Whitespace-continuations can be removed from trailers so
that each trailer appears on a line by itself with its full content with
trailers:unfold. Both can be used together as trailers:unfold,only.

For sorting purposes, fields with numeric values sort in numeric order
(objectsize, authordate, committerdate, creatordate, taggerdate).
All other fields are used to sort in their byte-value order.

There is also an option to sort by versions, this can be done by using
the fieldname version:refname or its alias v:refname.

In any case, a field name that refers to a field inapplicable to
the object referred by the ref does not cause an error. It
returns an empty string instead.

As a special case for the date-type fields, you may specify a format for
the date by adding : followed by date format name (see the
values the --date option to git-rev-list[1] takes).

Some atoms like %(align) and %(if) always require a matching %(end).
We call them "opening atoms" and sometimes denote them as %($open).

When a scripting language specific quoting is in effect, everything
between a top-level opening atom and its matching %(end) is evaluated
according to the semantics of the opening atom and only its result
from the top-level is quoted.

EXAMPLES

An example directly producing formatted text. Show the most recent
3 tagged commits: